Blogs

Remy Ma Supports Nicki Minaj

Celebrity Favorites: Papoose
Though former Terror Squad rapper Remy Ma is in the middle of serving an eight-year prison sentence, her husband, Brooklyn MC Papoose, is confident that if she weren't behind bars, rap's female landscape wouldn't be so one-sided.

"If she was home, the game would be different. Period, that's just the truth," Papoose told MTV News. "Not to take away from what anybody else is doin', because we support all that, but we all know it's an empty spot now that Remy's locked up."

Remy, 29, got her start under the guidance of the late Big Pun. After Pun's death in 2000, her career flourished as a member of Fat Joe's Terror Squad and really took off after appearing on the group's 2004 hit single "Lean Back." Known for her brash delivery and street-savvy rhymes, Remy didn't exactly fit the sexualized female rap mold that Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown helped create in the 1990s. The Bronx native would release her solo album There's Something About Remy: Based on a True Story in 2006, but the next year, she was involved in a shooting that would land her in jail. Rem was handed an eight-year sentence after being found guilty on assault, weapons and coercion charges in the wake of shooting onetime friend Makeda Barnes-Joseph in July 2007.

Since Remy's been locked up, hip-hop has crowned a new rap queen in Nicki Minaj. "She supports it, she's happy to see the success of Nicki Minaj, she expressed that to me," Pap said. "She happy to see somebody come up. Just to see somebody new shine and go all the way with it. She's definitely happy to see that."

Papoose also ensured that Remy is still writing lyrics in anticipation for her release from prison. "Her pen game is crazy; she spits verses to me all the time," he said, "I just feel sorry for the competition when she get out here. Period."